The sun towered high above in the sky, pure white clouds drifted in the blue radiance of it.
Sophia let out a yawn, stretching her arms as she was finally done with teaching her students today.
Well, there weren't many children in the town, and most of them were born unattuned.
Since she moved into this place, there was only one girl born in the mage order. Who was hardly a year or two older than Sophia's own son.
She started to teach her the way of essence along with Alea's son. It was his first day today and the class was nothing more than an orientation session.
They were too young to dive deeper into the spellcraft but enough to understand the basics of it.
Sophia didn't want to burden her students as she herself was once.
Children are better to be kept away from this cruelty until they reach a specific age of understanding, she believed.
She saw her son sitting on the verandah, trying to read the meaning of the words. Nowadays, August strangely grows fascinated by history.
Which was a good thing, perhaps.
A thought about teaching her son together with these children did cross her mind but knowing him, August would probably shut her down.
Who wants to be schooled by their own mother after all.
Well, it was a good thing that he was sitting in her sight. It made both of her tasks so much easier.
Now she could teach these kids in peace without having to worry about her son.
Or that was what she thought…
The moment she relaxed, August vanished from her sight in a blink of an eye.
Her heart sank as she rushed to find her son. She called for him, searched every corner of the house but August was nowhere to be found.
Perhaps if her son was born unattuned or a mage Sophia would've panicked a little less.
Then again, how could a mother's heart rest easy when it is about her child.
She began to imagine things, speculate the most horrifying conjecture while running down the streets of the town calling for her son.
It was nothing but bad luck that her son was born as an Ambivalent. The most dangerous order to be born in.
It didn't affect the process of ascension but being born in Ambivalence made much more difference.
Not to mention the echoes had already started to trouble her son.
Her heartbeat grew faster, cold sweat running down her spine as the chilling fear of her child being hurt overwhelmed Sophia.
In the brilliant light of the sun as she finally reached the town square she saw her husband. He was talking to the residents. Sophia tried to call for him however, after exhausting herself her voice was barely audible.
But her husband noticed her not so long after. His expressions turned troubled as he rushed towards her.
"Wha.. what happened?" He asked after watching her exhausted state.
Sophia gasped for air as her breathing slowly returned to normal,
"he.. August … our son …our son is missing."
— —
Back at the west gate, on the rocky hill August was completely shrouded in the thick mist. He covered his ears with both of his hands—trying to resist the strain of echoes.
Outside of the mist, the woman with pearl white hair was fighting the huge flying creatures with colorful wings.
She was a soul creature herself so there was no way those lower orders could've won against her but right now she was protecting August from two foes—it was like fighting on two fronts at the same time.
The circumstances were enough to turn the tides on her. However, she did her best.
She changed her form, moving ahead in the group of creatures as a wraith of mist.
From wherever she passed, bodies of the enemy soldiers fell down from the sky, lifeless.
Not that the enemy was unarmed either.
Occasionally they would fire the threads of silk towards their enemy. From outside it seemed like a desperate attempt to fight a battle but in reality against a formless creature like her—it was the perfect counter.
The thread was infused with the essence of another soul creature. The mysterious creature was where its soldiers were drawing power in order to kill its enemy from afar.
Which only meant another leadership has emerged in the forest since the last tyrant leader arachnid's appearance—who was now presumed dead by the way.
The speciality of these threads was that they could cut anything. Means that if the woman wasn't careful she could lose her life. Even if she was made of nothing but formless mist.
While it was difficult for the enemy to kill her because of the difference in the ranks, negligence could be proven deadly if not cared for.
To make things worse, some of the creatures had already sneaked into the concentrated mist which shielded August from direct enemy attack.
Inside the mist August was struggling for his life. It wasn't easy to resist the will of the forces that had shaped the world.
His heart was beating loudly, it felt like his blood vessels were about to burst open.
He wanted nothing more but to end this thing quickly.
As he shivered within the coldness of the mist, from one corner of his teary eyes he saw the silhouettes approaching him from the sky.
His fear grew deeper as he realised who they were—even inside the blurry mist it was difficult to ignore those coloured wings which hid the intent of harm within them.
— — — — —